Microsoft's Gamefest Explored

1up was there to cover Microsoft's annual Gamefest event, and came away with some interesting information. Across all of its gaming platforms (Xbox Live, Games for Windows, MSN Games, etc.), the company claims 100 Million gamers per month. Xbox Live, in particular, received attention at the event. The company talking about more demos, downloads, and microtransactions being the hallmarks for the future of the service. From that article:

"While Microsoft wants demos and add-ons to be a critical part of the plans for games, they also iterated the importance of other parts of the Marketplace. The personalization options offered by the Gamer Pictures and Themes is something Microsoft will continue to encourage developers to create. However, the notion that these 360-pieces of flair would regularly appear free on the Marketplace should be squashed, for now. Microsoft indicated that they have very strict limitations on free content and that they intend on keeping the gamer pictures and themes pretty consistently priced."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there no way to create your own gamerface picture and upload it and use it for free? Same goes for Theme's. I will never by one of those lame picture packs they offer me because I'm a d-i-y kinda guy. It'd be nice if Microsoft had a page where you could upload a gamer photo (like so many other sites) and it just needs to be approved and after, you could get to use your own picture! And as far as themes go, Can I not create my own theme and upload it to my Xbox360? Even if I had (which I don't) WMCE (which seems to be the only way to get your computer to talk to your pc)